Thursday, October 08, 2015

A twittering fool tries to rewrite Iraq

Under George W. Bush the US government lost and cannot account for $11 billion in #Iraq during 2007. Why isn't #TreyGowdy investigating?

80 retweets62 favorites

I know where I was in 2007, 2008, etc -- at Congressional hearings addressing this and at Senate Democratic Policy Committee held hearings addressing this issue. I know it because we attended them and we reported on them here.

They usually didn't even get a mention on the evening news but they took place and, again, we covered them -- check the archives.

And I know why the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction was created and that Stuart Bowen Jr. headed it.

And I know it was under Barack Obama that the office was killed.

Over the wishes of many in Congress -- Democrats and Republicans.

And over the wishes and stated concerns of Bowen.

And I know that Democrats in Congress, in the House, repeatedly voiced concern as the mission in Iraq was turned over to the State Dept -- then under Hillary Clinton. They voiced concern about the waste of money -- the millions being allocated for training police, for example, when the 'acting' head of the Ministry of the Interior said they didn't want the training.

I know the House Foreign Affairs Committee was very concerned with Hillary's inability to answer questions about funding -- needs and spending. I know that the Committee publicly expressed their distaste in hearing after hearing over the lack of transparency from State on the budget.

I know they expressed concern over the fact that the State Dept has no Inspector General over it.

I know that Hillary would go her entire four years as Secretary of State resisting Congressional oversight and with no Inspector General to review her actions.

I know John Kerry, in his initial appearances before Congress once becoming Secretary of State, promised there would be an Inspector General and made sure that before his first year in office concluded, someone had been appointed Inspector General.

What I don't know is why some idiot who Tweets thinks they can ignore history -- or maybe they're just too stupid to know this history -- or too lazy -- it's a lot of work attending Congressional hearings and sitting through all that nonsense?

It's so much easier to offer some idiotic Tweet that's both uninformed and bitchy.

And I know that a lot of idiots will rally around the Tweet because they never did the work required and never followed Iraq or, honestly, ever cared about Iraq.

But now they trot it out to use as a political football or -- more often -- a political hammer to smash over someone else's head.

I know that if you check our archives, we called out in real time Barack's backing of thug Nouri al-Maliki during 2010's 8 month long political stalemate -- and issue the stupid can speak of because they weren't paying attention.

I know that we charted the disintegration of the security situation.

I know that we called out Nouri throughout and didn't wait until Barack turned on him publicly in June of 2014.

I know a great deal about Iraq because we never walked away from the topic.

But by all means, Twittering fool, let's pretend that you somehow followed the topic, somehow paid attention when your Tweets repeatedly demonstrate that you're a hack whose sole interest in Iraq is how you can use it.

You didn't send up the call when Nouri's Ministry of the Interior was targeting Emos who they connected with vampires (seriously, that's what the police handed out in Iraqi schools) and gays.

You didn't cover one damn topic.

But by all means, to attack the Benghazi investigation and a Republican member of Congress (who wasn't even in Congress when the Iraq War started), Tweet your stupidity because you know it will be embraced by the especially deeply stupid.

Jean-Marc Mojon and Raji Nasser (AFP) notes, "Baghdad: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bullish entry into the
Syrian conflict has worked wonders for his popularity in neighbouring
Iraq, where some await 'Hajji Putin' like a saviour."

If popularity is a zero sum game -- and, yes, sometimes it is -- then that means other leaders are less popular in Iraq.

Barack's inability to stand up to Nouri al-Maliki during the second term -- one Barack gifted Nouri with after Nouri lost the 2010 elections -- probably goes a long way towards explaining the warm reception that Putin is receiving currently.

About Me

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